Korea Investment CORP Acquires 906,737 Shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX)

Korea Investment CORP boosted its holdings in shares of Lam Research Co. (NASDAQ:LRCX) by 756.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,026,610 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after acquiring an additional 906,737 shares during the period. Korea Investment CORP’s holdings in Lam Research were worth $74,152,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of LRCX. Algert Global LLC lifted its position in Lam Research by 40.5% during the 3rd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 694 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $566,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Lam Research during the third quarter worth approximately $220,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P bought a new stake in shares of Lam Research during the third quarter valued at approximately $486,000. Qsemble Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Lam Research in the third quarter valued at approximately $267,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in Lam Research by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 124,341 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $101,472,000 after purchasing an additional 5,951 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.61% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Seshasayee Varadarajan sold 110,080 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total transaction of $9,907,200.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,084 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,117,560. The trade was a 38.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LRCX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Lam Research from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Lam Research from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $91.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research cut Lam Research from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Susquehanna raised shares of Lam Research from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and raised their target price for the company from $75.00 to $125.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Lam Research from $90.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lam Research currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.06.

Lam Research Stock Performance

Shares of LRCX stock opened at $76.14 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $97.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.53. Lam Research Co. has a 52 week low of $68.87 and a 52 week high of $113.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.73 and a current ratio of 2.54. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $79.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $77.33.

Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The semiconductor company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Lam Research had a return on equity of 51.86% and a net margin of 26.49%. On average, analysts expect that Lam Research Co. will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lam Research Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be given a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. Lam Research’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.96%.

Lam Research Profile

Lam Research Corporation designs, manufactures, markets, refurbishes, and services semiconductor processing equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits. The company offers ALTUS systems to deposit conformal films for tungsten metallization applications; SABRE electrochemical deposition products for copper interconnect transition that offers copper damascene manufacturing; SOLA ultraviolet thermal processing products for film treatments; and VECTOR plasma-enhanced CVD ALD products.